by Russell Fine
2069
It had been fifty years since the power module was invented and the world had gone through some major changes as a result. Some of the changes were easy to predict. Nobody used fossil fuels for energy production anymore. Every home had its own power source. Every mode of transportation now used electricity. The last to convert were ships and airplanes, but by 2050 even those were using electric power. This resulted in cleaner air and water all over the planet.
The world continued to improve economically as well; since nobody paid for energy anymore, everybody had more money to spend.
Some of the changes were less obvious. Now that electric power was available everywhere, governments and charities were able to set up medical facilities in the most remote areas. They could now provide light, clean water, heating and cooling, and even sanitation facilities wherever they were needed. As a result of the improved living conditions, infant death rates were cut in some areas by over ninety percent, and average lifespans increased in these remote areas as well.
Of course, these advances were not limited to the remote areas of the world. With the advances that had been made in medicine, many of the most common causes of death had either been eliminated or significantly reduced. The result was a substantial increase in the population. These people needed homes, transportation, and energy.
People all over the world were now dependent on the power modules, and as the population increased so did the demand for them. Kingman was no longer the only company that manufactured the power modules. There were at least twenty other companies making them. The problem was not a lack of manufacturing facilities, but a lack of silver. Worldwide silver production had dropped to less than 80 thousand metric tons per year and resulted in nearly a fifty percent drop in power module production.
From 2035 to 2065 every new home or apartment included a power module. Now, depending on where you lived, you might have to wait for six months to get one. As a result, new home construction had dropped by more than sixty percent. That created a housing shortage, and most parents found themselves living with their adult children since they couldn’t find homes of their own.
Cars had also included power modules for many years, but as the cost for the power modules increased, that feature was eliminated. By 2069, if someone needed a power module for a car the wait was at least four months. This meant if anyone purchased a new car they had to have a power module for it, and car dealers no longer accepted “trade-ins” because they couldn’t be sold. The result was thousands of abandoned cars, many only a few years old, littered streets and empty lots in the large cities. If a car was in an accident and the power module was damaged the owner could find themselves in real trouble.
By the summer of 2069, there were mass protests and more than a few riots caused by the situation. For the most part, people understood the problem, but they were frustrated and felt something should be done. There was some talk about bringing back power stations and even gas-powered cars, but the infrastructure was gone and there was no way to bring it back. The world had moved on, but something had to be done.
PART TWO
THE SOLUTION
SEPTEMBER 2069
Robert Townsend was President of the North American and was currently severing a two-year term as the Leader of the World Council. He was about six feet tall and kept himself fit by walking five miles a day and watching his diet. As a result, he looked much younger than his actual age of seventy-one. He had been a politician for almost his entire adult life, but he had never faced a problem as serious as the lack of silver the world was currently experiencing.
Robert Townsend stood up in front of the group and said, “I want to thank you all for coming. We have a serious problem and I think we should decide, as a group, on the best course of action. As you all know, we’ve been looking for an alternative to silver to use in the manufacture of the power modules for years, but nothing else works. Our ability to find additional sources of silver haven’t met with great success either. In fact, the estimates for this year’s production is eighty metric tons, and next year will probably only be around sixty-five metric tons. That’s less than half of what we need to keep up with demand. These are facts all of you are aware of, but the reason I called this meeting is that we’ve made a discovery recently that could resolve our problem.”
He now had the attention of everybody in the room. In attendance were the heads of all of the major trading groups. In the room were the presidents of the South American Union, the European Union, the Asian Common Union, and the Australian Union. They controlled the world economy and had to make a very important and very expensive decision, but with the exception of Robert Townsend, they didn’t know that yet.
“One of the space probes we launched last year landed on Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. I was given a report last week indicating Ganymede has substantial silver deposits, perhaps exceeding the deposits on Earth. Each of you has a copy of that report in the folder in front of you. I propose we finance an expedition to Ganymede to determine if the report is correct. The cost for this expedition is just over one trillion dollars.”
He waited for a moment for them to absorb what he had just said and then he continued, “NASA believes they can have the equipment and crew ready in eighteen months. The trip to Ganymede will take eight months, the crew will need at least three months on Ganymede to complete their analysis, and then they’ll have an eight-month trip back. These figures are based on current engine design which will allow the ship to travel at speeds up to eighty thousand miles per hour.”
When he finished speaking, Aki Hoshiko from the ACU asked, “Even if they find Ganymede is ninety percent silver, how can we get it back to Earth without going bankrupt?”
“That’s phase two of the plan. NASA believes they can develop an engine that would enable ships to travel at speeds up to sixty percent of light speed, or one hundred twelve thousand miles per second. That would reduce travel time to Ganymede to ten days. The actual travel time would be less than two hours, but it takes time for the ship to accelerate to maximum speed and then slow down again as it approaches Earth. The ships would be unmanned because it would be impossible for a human to endure the gravitational forces during acceleration. Also, the ships would be quite large, perhaps fifteen hundred cubic meters, so each ship could carry millions of ounces of silver ore.”
“A ship that large can’t land, can it?” asked Maurice Le Carré from the EU.
“No, you’re right, it can’t land on Earth. We have to unload the cargo and put it into ships like the ones we currently use to bring supplies to the International Space Station. The ships could land on Ganymede, however, because the gravity is only fifteen percent of the gravity on Earth. The low gravity will also make it easy to mine the silver ore and easy to load the cargo ship.”
“This sounds a lot like science fiction, but even if it’s possible, what’s it going to cost?” asked Gordon King from the Australian Union.
“That’s an excellent question, Gordon, and one I knew would be asked. It won’t be cheap. NASA estimates the cost will be between one and two trillion dollars. Once we have the technology, we would be able to explore all of the planets and moons in the solar system. Think about what we might find,” Robert said with excited nervousness, “You should also be aware this is a long-term commitment. It will take three or four years of development to complete and test the engine design. Some work has already begun, and once that’s finished we’ll have to build a ship to test the engine. That will probably be another year at least. The testing will take perhaps six months. If no additional design changes in the engine are required, which is unlikely, work can begin on the cargo ships. I would assume some engine changes will be required and then tested, so I would add another year to the schedule. Since the cargo ships won’t be carrying any people, the design is much simpler, and the design of the cargo ships will probably start while the engine is being tested. Of course, the cargo ships have to be built in s
pace, so the process will be slower, but I think it will take a year to build each ship. With luck, we might be able to launch the first cargo ship in as little as eight years. The first ship will be sent to Ganymede with the materials required to build a habitat for the workers. Again, if everything works according to plan, the first cargo ship with silver ore should be back to Earth ten years after the program starts.”
At that point, Robert paused for a few moments and Gordon King asked, “Is there a plan to build a ship with a new engine that will be able to carry people? I don’t think unmanned ships can really carry out much in the way of scientific research.”
“Yes, there’s some research going on in that area already. We know the human body can’t withstand more than 3 g’s for any extended length of time, but we think by placing the crew in some kind of chamber that will mitigate some of the forces, combined with a form of “suspended animation” if you will, we can keep the acceleration at 6 g’s. At that rate it will take the ship two weeks to reach twenty thousand miles per second, which should be fast enough to make travel within the solar system reasonable. Obviously, a lot of this is theoretical, but it’s based on sound scientific principles. Any questions?”
“Yes,” said Representative Eric Estivez of the South American Union. “How many cargo ships do you plan on building?”
“The plan is to build three ships. We don’t know how difficult it will be to mine the silver ore, but it should be easier than it is on Earth because of the lower gravity. We think with three ships there’ll always be one in orbit by the space station to be unloaded.”
“How many people will be on Ganymede?” Maurice Le Carré asked.
“Probably one hundred to start. The habitat will be designed to comfortably hold two hundred. The cargo ships won’t go back to Ganymede empty. They’ll bring everything necessary to keep the people there comfortable.”
There were quiet murmurs in the room amongst the constituents. Robert cleared his throat to signify that he was not done yet. Once everyone’s eyes were focused on him again, he took a moment to organize his thoughts.
After a few more seconds, Robert continued, “I realize this is a lot to think about. I’m going to put together a written plan over the next week and send a copy to each of you. That plan will include the financial contribution each of you will be required to make. I would like to get together again one month from today and make our decision. If anybody has an alternative proposal please let us know at that meeting. If there’s no alternative plan, please be prepared to vote on this proposal at that time. We can’t postpone our decision. I’m sure we’ve all heard the rumors about bringing back power generating stations and gas-powered cars. None of us want that so we must be proactive. Thank you all for coming.”
When he finished speaking he sat down and the meeting broke up a few minutes later.
OCTOBER 2069
All of the people who attended the September meeting were at this meeting as well. Robert Townsend spoke to the group. “It’s good to see all of you again so soon. I know each of you received a copy of the report I sent out after the last meeting since I’ve spoken to all of you several times during the last month. I presume each of you has read the report and if you have any comments or suggestions, now would be the time for us to discuss it.”
Aki Hoshiko from the Asian Common Union stood up and said, “I believe you have done an excellent job. The report contains all the information I needed to make my decision. Speaking for the ACU, we fully support the recommendations outlined in the report. I met with my top science advisors and they also agreed this is probably the only reasonable solution to the problem.”
“Well, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Has anybody come up with an alternative solution we should consider?”
Representative Estivez of the South American Union asked, “Since we already have a small colony on Mars, have you considered Mars as a possible source for silver?”
“We did consider that, but in the twenty years we’ve been exploring Mars, we haven’t found any deposits of materials that are not abundant on Earth. If we ever run short of iron or nickel then Mars might offer a solution, but there’s no indication there are any large deposits of silver there.”
Maurice Le Carré said, “I agree with Mr. Hoshiko; this appears to be the only possible solution to the problem. Do any of you disagree with that?”
Since nobody spoke up, Robert said, “There have been some interesting developments since our last meeting. First, NASA is currently building a ship that was meant to be used for the next Mars mission. It’s much larger than the current ships because it was supposed to transport twenty-five people. The current ships have a maximum capacity of twelve. NASA has agreed to repurpose that ship for the trip to Ganymede. There’ll be some changes required for the longer trip, but they believe they can have the ship ready in six to eight months. I think you might also be interested to know the captain for that trip to Mars, who will now be going to Ganymede, is Terry Simpson. He’s the son of Albert Simpson who, as you all know, was the inventor of the power module.”
Robert continued, “There has also been some good news in the development of what is now being called the sub-light engine. Computer simulations indicate the design will work and the engine should allow the ships to reach approximately sixty-two percent of light speed or about one hundred fifteen thousand miles per second. One of the NASA engineers tried to explain how the engine works, but even though I took some basic physics classes in college, I wasn’t really able to understand it. In any case, a computer simulation isn’t the same as a real test, and according to the engineer, the real testing probably won’t start for two or three years. I know this is optimistic, but these two developments put us two years ahead of where I thought we were at the last meeting.”
“I think that’s very good news. Let’s put this to a vote,” Gordon King said.
“Okay, you all know the financial contribution you’re required to make so unless there’s some objection, I would like to ask all who are in favor of proceeding with the Ganymede proposal say ‘aye.’”
Everybody in the room said “aye” and Robert said, “Thank you all. I believe we made the correct decision. I’ll prepare a press release and send it to each you for comments by the end of the week. I would like to announce this to the world sometime next week.”
All of the attendees agreed again and Robert said, “I’ll keep each of you informed with monthly progress reports, and if something important occurs each of you will be informed immediately. I would also like to ask each of you to let me know if you have somebody from your area you think would be useful to the project. I’ll arrange for them to be made part of the NASA team. Thank you all for coming.”
***
A few days later Robert arranged for a worldwide broadcast to explain what was going to happen. After a brief introduction, he began to speak. “Good evening. As all of you are aware, the world has become dependent on power modules. Currently, we are unable to mine the silver needed to meet the demand for them. I want you all to know those of us in government are aware of the problem and now we believe a solution has been found.
“Over a year ago a probe was sent to Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter. Actually, it’s the largest moon in our solar system. Although the intent of the probe was not specifically to search for silver, it did discover what we believe are massive silver deposits. And although it may seem like science fiction, we have found a way to mine the silver on Ganymede and bring it back to Earth. I wish I could tell you we’ll have all the silver we need shortly, but I can’t do that. But, I can promise you that we are working hard to find additional sources of silver, and we believe that you will see incremental increases in silver production very soon.
“Last week NASA began modifications of a new ship that was originally going to be sent to our colony on Mars. It’s now going to be used for a trip to Ganymede. This ship should launch within six months and its mission is to verify the si
lver deposits on Ganymede and determine the best methods to extract the silver. While this mission is going on, we’re designing a fleet of new ships that will be used as cargo vessels. These ships will be powered by a new engine that will allow the ships to travel at speeds of up to sixty percent of light speed. These ships will be unmanned and will be able to make the trip between Ganymede and Earth in ten days. Each ship will have a capacity of fifteen hundred cubic meters of cargo space and will be able to transport twenty million ounces of silver ore. These ships are, needless to say, very complex and they’ll require a lot of time to develop. We expect to begin development of these ships shortly and expect them to be fully operational by the time we begin the mining operations on Ganymede.
“Additionally, we want you to know we’re doing exhaustive searches for new sources of silver here on Earth as well, and those explorations will continue. We have found some areas that appear to be promising, and we will keep you informed regarding our progress.
We ask for your patience while we work to resolve the problem that faces all of us. It will be resolved as quickly as possible. Thank you all for your time this evening.”
The reaction to the speech was predictable. Nobody was really happy with the plan because even if everything went according to the schedule, which few believed would happen, the problems would continue for many years to come. It didn’t stop the demonstrations, and some of those demonstrations turned somewhat violent. Nobody was hurt but there was some significant property damage and most of that was directed at Kingman. Many of the demonstrators felt Kingman was responsible for the current problem and the world was better off before the power module was invented.
However, a week after Robert’s televised speech, the discovery of a huge, previously unknown silver deposit was going to play an important interim role. Initial indications revealed it could produce seventy thousand metric tons of silver per year when it was in full production. It would be a few months before that happened, but that was a lot less than the eight years before the silver ore from Ganymede would be available.
